Thag Write?

There was a great article in HealthDay today about food journaling. As part of my job, both as a physician, and as an health and weight loss advocate, I spend time reviewing the medical and lay literature for new developments, or ideas that may help my patients and my readers lose weight.

Food journaling is not a new idea, and it is one that I have long been a proponent of. I thought I would revisit the topic, since I read about it today. Like many things in our society nowadays, the mainstream idea is right in principle, but hits off the mark. Using a food journal as most nutritionists recommend will help you lose some weight. Effective food journaling, on the other hand, will help you lose A LOT of weight. Other than actually eating right and exercise, a food journal is probably the most important weapon in your weight loss arsenal.

Let me explain. A conventional weight loss journal would include things like what foods you ate, what times you ate them, and the calorie counts of those foods. If you use a pretty advanced food journal, it might also help you calculate your protein, fat, and carbohydrate intake. By looking at how many calories you have eaten, you know how many you have to go, and the mere act of writing down the foods you eat helps you to think about exactly what you are eating, so that you will hopefully make better choices.

This is all well and good, but it misses the point.

What you should really be journaling about is not only what you ate, but WHY you ate it. For most overweight people (myself included), the reason you carry extra weight is less about the what than it is about the why. I spend a lot of time talking about how the food culture in America sets up for failure, and it does. There is just too much food. We, however, set ourselves up for failure as well. I, for example, used food as an emotional coping device, entertainment, and a comfort aid. Most of my overeating occurred when I was stressed, bored, or lonely, but I never really realized it.

Part of the reason I write this blog is to share with you what I did wrong, so that you can hopefully benefit from my mistakes. One of my biggest is that I assumed that being overweight was purely a proposition of eating too many calories. Until I learned that there were triggers for my overeating, and how to avoid them, I had no chance.

When you write your food journal, I want you to concentrate on three things: what, why, and how. Write down:

1. What you ate- Write down everything you ate and drank, so that you can accurately review and eliminate poor food choices.

2. Why you ate- Write down why you chose that time to consume food. Were you hungry? If so, how hungry, on a 1-10 scale? Was it a mealtime, a planned snack time, or an impulse snack?

3. How you were feeling- This is the most important. Write down what emotions you were experiencing. Particularly note the negative ones, such as boredom, sadness, loneliness, or anger.

Finally, once a week or so, review your journal, and try to focus on patterns. Note if a particular emotion or reason stands out as an eating trigger. If so, whenever you feel that way, avoid food like the plague. You can't fight what you can't see, so this knowledge is key in your fight against obesity!